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The U.S. men’s national team is co-hosting the 2026 World Cup with the largest ever field (48 teams) in the tournament’s history. So, what will constitute success for the USA after the team learned its group stage opponents?
Former USA greats Landon Donovan, Brad Guzan, and Cobi Jones believe that the current squad can reach at least the quarterfinals. That would mean winning at least two knockout round games in the edition’s expanded bracket.
But it all starts by winning a very favorable group for the U.S. team.
Coach Mauricio Pochettino’s squad was drawn in Group D for the World Cup with Australia, Panama, and a team that will be determined in March via the UEFA playoffs (Türkiye, Romania, Slovakia, or Kosovo). If Türkiye clinches that spot, it means that all the USA’s World Cup opponents will be teams that the squad has played this past year in various friendlies.
“I wouldn’t want the players to think we’ve played them before, we’ve beat them before, we got this in the bag,” Jones said. “This onus is going to be on Pochettino to make sure they’re not going to fall into that, that they’re to walk through into the next round.”
The U.S. opens its World Cup campaign on June 12 against Paraguay at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. It’s a rematch of a November exhibition in which the USMNT defeated the South American squad, 2-1.
“They’re a tough out. I don’t care that they are not Brazil or Argentina. They’re going to be ready to play,” Donovan said. “I think we win the game, we should win the game, but they are hardened. They go through a hard qualifying schedule.”
“There are no easy games,” Guzan said. “It’s going to make for intense battles … [the U.S. team is] going to want to make use of the expertise they’re gaining. They can not slip into the lure that they’ve overwhelmed these groups.”
Donovan is especially trying ahead to the second sport of the group section, which is a June 19 conflict in opposition to Australia in Seattle.
“I watched Aussie coach [Tony Popovic] after the draw … his first remark was that ‘We’re happy.’ I used to be like, actually? Are you?”
The USMNT defeated Australia 2-1 in October with striker Haji Wright scoring twice, though star ahead Christian Pulisic got here off with a hamstring damage that sidelined him for weeks.
“They are a strong workforce; laborious to play in opposition to, nevertheless it’s a workforce that I feel we must always beat,” Donovan mentioned.
The U.S. will shut out the group on June 25 again in Los Angeles, though it is nonetheless not recognized who’ll be that opponent. Türkiye is the highest-ranked and most proficient of the 4 European groups in competition for that spot. And it’s a squad that the U.S. misplaced to again in June by a 2-1 scoreline.
“You must be near wrapped up by this level. You can not go into this sport having it imply whether or not you’ll be able to truly simply qualify [for the knockout phase],” Donovan mentioned. “We can’t put ourselves in that place.”
Nonetheless, all three former World Cup veterans imagine that the U.S. will come out on prime within the group and get a positive path within the knockout spherical.
“A quarterfinal …. We’re going to use the expertise of how a lot they’ve grown beneath Pochettino. I like our probabilities,” Guzan mentioned.
“With this new World Cup, that is like an additional sport to get there. You possibly can have some brutal matchups simply within the subsequent spherical,” Jones mentioned. “That may be an excellent displaying to make the quarterfinals.”
Donovan added, “Momentum for a house nation could be very actual. We have seen it in South Korea [in 2002], in Russia in [2018] … You possibly can see this occurring. Win the group, get an honest draw. … I feel a quarterfinal could be an exceptional consequence.”
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